Home > > Booking.com Reveal their true face | By Georges Panayotis

Booking.com Reveal their true face | By Georges Panayotis

10/11/2012| 10:07:08 AM| 中文

Booking.com now reserves the right to automatically resell a room that one of its customers has canceled, so as not to lose commission. They eliminate the transmission of e-mail addresses of their customers, a ridiculous practice to avoid direct contact between the hotel and the customer.

The relationship between online reservation agencies and hoteliers has already evolved to a tense partnership, and is now entering to a new phase of confrontation. The trade war among online agencies has developed practices near piracy. Addicted over the years at online bookings, hoteliers are now paying at high price, the ease in which they fell behind. And news from the front is not good! 

Having literally trampled the competition both in Paris and in the surrounding regions, Booking.com profits from their dominant position by imposing new rules on the game. To the surprise of its "partners", the site now reserves the right to automatically resell a room that one of its customers has canceled, so as not to lose commission. They block access to the customer's bank information, so that the hotel cannot claim the forfeit for no-show. They eliminate the transmission of e-mail addresses of their customers, a ridiculous practice to avoid direct contact between the hotel and the customer. This does not characterize a relationship of trust between business partners. 

By hiding their customers under a virtual burka, Booking unveil their true face, more of a predator than a partner. But beware, all these practices are also indicative of the fear that its model might be undermined by technological change or the sound response of customers and hoteliers. The most hastily built walls are not the strongest. Giants with feet of clay, Booking, and those who follow their ways, have everything to fear from the will of Google or Apple to tread on its land. The e-commerce T-Rex sharpens their teeth to feed on those who interfere. No one can really predict the outcome of the fight. An opaque veil will eventually tear for the client to question the added value of a service provider that offers, in the end, the same rate as the brand website. Hoteliers can say thank you to the Best Available Rate, as long as they retain control. There are fights that should not be undertaken: after having reconquered the right to set their prices, they must regain full control of their inventory, preventing an online agency from coming to dig in the PMS without being invited.

Read full story at: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4057989.html

TAGS: Booking.com | OTA | hotel distribution
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